The Basics of Discovery
How information is exchanged before trial: interrogatories, requests for production, requests for admission, and depositions — plus your obligations and how to object.
What this guide covers
- What discovery is & why it matters
- The six stages of discovery
- Scope, relevance & proportionality
- Privilege & work product
- Mandatory initial disclosures
- The five discovery tools
- Interrogatories (+ template)
- Requests for production & ESI
- Requests for admission (+ template)
- Depositions & the corporate rep
- Nonparty discovery & subpoenas
- Responding & objecting
- The privilege log
- Motions to compel & sanctions
- Using discovery to win
- Checklist & free legal research
Start Here
Discovery is how you get the evidence — before trial, on the record
Trials are won with evidence, and most evidence starts in the other side’s hands. Discovery is the formal, court-backed process for getting it.
Discovery is the exchange of information between parties before trial. You can make the other side answer written questions under oath, produce documents and electronic records, admit or deny facts, and sit for a deposition — and they can do the same to you. Used well, discovery builds your case; ignored, it can lose it.
The scope: relevant and proportional
Florida lets you discover any nonprivileged matter that is relevant to a claim or defense — and, since 2025, that is also proportional to the needs of the case.1 Relevant information need not be admissible at trial, so long as it is reasonably calculated to lead to admissible evidence.1
Florida’s 2025 amendments imported the federal proportionality standard. Courts now weigh the importance of the issues, the amount in controversy, the parties’ access to information, resources, and whether the burden of the discovery outweighs its likely benefit.2 Sweeping “give me everything” requests are now easier to resist — and easier to get quashed.
Discovery responses are generally not filed with the court — you serve them on the other parties and keep proof of service.36 You file them only when you attach them to a motion or use them at a hearing.
The Road Ahead
Discovery follows a repeatable, six-stage path
This guide walks each stage in order. The progress bar at the top of each stage shows where you are.
1 · Plan
Decide what you need, confirm it is relevant and proportional, and identify what is privileged or work product and therefore protected.
2 · Disclose
Exchange the mandatory initial disclosures the 2025 rules now require — witnesses, documents, and a damages computation — without waiting to be asked.
3 · Request
Use the five tools: interrogatories, requests for production, requests for admission, depositions, and subpoenas to nonparties.
4 · Respond
Answer or object within the deadline, produce what is discoverable, and log what you withhold as privileged.
5 · Compel
If the other side stonewalls, confer first, then move to compel — and ask for the sanctions the rules allow.
6 · Use
Turn the answers, admissions, and documents into summary-judgment exhibits, impeachment, and trial evidence.
The 2025 rules added mandatory initial disclosures and tightened the scope of discovery with proportionality.3 Older Florida practice did not require disclosures at all — do not rely on out-of-date forms or guides.
Stage 1 · Plan
Scope, relevance, and the proportionality factors
Before you draft a single request, decide what facts you actually need to prove your claims or defenses — and whether a court would call the request proportional.
Start from your claims and defenses. For each element you must prove, ask: what document, answer, or admission would establish it? That keeps your discovery relevant and focused, instead of a fishing expedition a court can shut down.
The six proportionality factors
Importance of the issues
How much the requested information matters to the stakes of the case.
Amount in controversy
Discovery in a $9,000 case should not look like discovery in a $9 million case.
Access & resources
Who already has the information, and each party’s relative ability to obtain it.
Burden vs. benefit
Whether the effort and expense of the discovery outweigh its likely value to resolving the dispute.2
There is no fixed order, and one party’s discovery does not have to wait for another’s.29 A common efficient sequence is: serve interrogatories and requests for production first to learn the landscape, use requests for admission to lock down undisputed facts, then take depositions armed with the documents.
Stage 1 · Plan
When discovery happens: timing and the case management order
Discovery is not open-ended. Under the 2025 rules, a case management order sets the clock — and you plan everything backward from it.
Soon after a case is filed, the court assigns it to a track — streamlined, general, or complex — and enters a case management order (CMO) with firm deadlines, including a date by which discovery must be completed.41 A plaintiff may generally serve discovery with or shortly after the complaint once the case is underway, and initial disclosures come due on the CMO’s early timeline.4
Plan backward from the discovery cutoff
Because most written discovery carries a 30-day response window, serve it early enough that the responses come due before the discovery deadline. A request served too close to the cutoff may never be answered in time — and depositions and any motions to compel take longer still, so leave room.
Treat the CMO as the master schedule. Calendar the discovery-completion date the day you receive it, then work backward through your written discovery, depositions, and any motions to compel. Deadlines are strictly enforced, and the parties “may not unilaterally extend” them.42
Stage 1 · Plan
What you do not have to hand over: privilege & work product
Two protections keep some information out of discovery even when it is relevant. Knowing them protects you — and tells you what to ask the other side to justify withholding.
Attorney–client privilege
Confidential communications between you and your lawyer made to obtain legal advice are privileged and need not be disclosed.7 For a corporation, Florida applies the Deason factors to decide whether a communication qualifies — including whether it was made for legal advice at the direction of a superior and kept confidential.8
Work product
Materials prepared in anticipation of litigation — your notes, strategy, and analysis — are protected work product. The doctrine traces to Hickman v. Taylor, which shielded a lawyer’s witness interviews from discovery.6 A party may reach fact work product only by showing substantial need and an inability to obtain the equivalent without undue hardship; opinion work product — mental impressions and legal theories — is almost never discoverable.5
Privilege can be waived by voluntary disclosure. Forwarding a privileged email to a friend, or discussing your lawyer’s advice with a third party, can destroy the protection. Keep privileged communications confidential, and when you withhold something, list it on a privilege log (Stage 4).
Stage 2 · Disclose
Mandatory initial disclosures New 2025
For the first time in Florida practice, the 2025 rules require parties in many cases to hand over core information automatically — before any request is served.
Each party must disclose, without waiting to be asked: the names and contact information of individuals likely to have discoverable information the party may use to support its claims or defenses; a copy or description of documents the party may use; and a computation of each category of damages, with the supporting materials.3
These disclosures are due early — tied to the case-management timeline — and must be supplemented as new information appears.4 You disclose what you may use; you do not have to volunteer the other side’s evidence.
Treat initial disclosures as a free preview. The other side must tell you their witnesses and key documents up front — mine that list to aim your interrogatories and document requests, and to spot anyone you should depose.
A witness or document a party fails to disclose (and later fails to supplement) can be excluded at trial. Florida courts weigh surprise, prejudice, and bad faith before excluding a witness,31 but the safest course is to disclose fully and supplement promptly.
Stage 2 · Template
Sample: Initial Disclosures
Disclosures are served, not filed. Replace each highlighted field with your own information, and supplement as the case develops.
Pursuant to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.280(a), NAME makes the following initial disclosures based on information reasonably available:
Stage 3 · Request
The five discovery tools — and what each is for
Florida gives you five formal ways to get information. Each has its own rule, its own deadline, and its own best use.
Interrogatories
Written questions the other party must answer in writing, under oath. Best for names, dates, account numbers, and “identify every…” questions. Limited to 30, including subparts.9
Requests for production
Demands for documents, records, and electronically stored information. The workhorse of most cases — contracts, emails, invoices, photos.11
Requests for admission
Statements the other side must admit or deny. Powerful: anything not answered in time is deemed admitted.13
Depositions
Live, sworn questioning of a party or witness, recorded by a court reporter. The only tool that reaches nonparty witnesses and lets you follow up in real time.16
Subpoenas
Commands to a nonparty to produce documents or appear for deposition — how you reach banks, employers, and other outsiders.18
Interrogatories, requests for production, and requests for admission go only to parties. To get documents or testimony from a nonparty, you need a subpoena (or the nonparty production procedure on the next pages).
Stage 3 · Request
Interrogatories: written questions under oath
Interrogatories are the cheapest way to pin down names, dates, numbers, and the other side’s version of events — in writing, signed under oath.
A party may serve up to 30 interrogatories, including subparts, without leave of court.9 Each must be answered separately and fully in writing under oath within the response deadline, or objected to with the reasons stated.
Form vs. special interrogatories
Florida’s rules include standard form interrogatories for common case types (such as auto-negligence) that you can adapt; everything else is a special interrogatory you draft for your case.
When the answer can be derived from business records, the responding party may — instead of writing it out — produce the records and let you find it, if the burden is substantially the same for both sides.10 Anticipate this: ask for the records too.
Because subparts count toward the 30-question limit, a single “identify each communication and state its date, author, recipients, and substance” can burn several. Draft tightly — or seek agreement or leave for more.
Stage 3 · Template
Sample: Interrogatories
Number each question, keep subparts minimal (they count toward 30), and tie every question to a fact you must prove.
Pursuant to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.340, NAME requests that DEFENDANT answer the following interrogatories separately, fully, in writing, and under oath within 30 days:
Stage 3 · Request
Requests for production — documents and electronic records
Most cases turn on documents. A request for production makes the other party hand over the contracts, emails, invoices, and data that prove what happened.
A party may request that another party produce and permit inspection of documents and tangible things — and electronically stored information (ESI) — within the scope of discovery.11 The responding party must produce them as kept in the ordinary course of business or organized to correspond to the categories in the request.
Electronically stored information
You may specify the form in which ESI is produced — for example, native files or searchable PDFs. If you do not, the producing party must use a form in which the information is ordinarily maintained or a reasonably usable form.12
Begin the request with clear definitions (“document,” “communication,” the relevant “time period”) and a short instruction on ESI form. Tight definitions prevent the cramped, literal responses that hide the document you actually need.
“All documents relating to the company since 2010” invites a proportionality objection. Bound every request by subject and time period so a judge sees it as targeted, not a fishing expedition.
Stage 3 · Template
Sample: Request for Production
Lead with definitions and a time period, then list bounded categories. Specify the form for electronic records.
Pursuant to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.350, NAME requests that DEFENDANT produce the following for inspection and copying within 30 days:
Stage 3 · Request
Requests for admission — the quiet power tool
Requests for admission narrow the case by forcing the other side to admit or deny specific facts — and the penalty for ignoring them is severe.
A party may serve written requests that another party admit the truth of facts, the application of law to fact, or the genuineness of documents.13 The matter is admitted unless, within 30 days, the responding party serves a written answer or objection.13 An unanswered request is deemed admitted — and an admission conclusively establishes the matter for the case.14
Use admissions to authenticate exhibits in advance: “Admit that Exhibit A is a true and correct copy of the contract you signed on [date].” A single admission can save you a fight over admissibility at trial or on summary judgment.
If you are served with requests for admission, missing the 30-day deadline can deem damaging facts admitted. Courts may allow a late answer in some circumstances, but never count on it — calendar the deadline the day you are served.
Stage 3 · Template
Sample: Requests for Admission
Keep each request to a single, simple fact so it cannot be evaded with a partial answer.
Pursuant to Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.370, NAME requests that DEFENDANT admit, within 30 days, the truth of the following:
Stage 3 · Request
Depositions — and the corporate representative
A deposition is live, sworn questioning recorded by a court reporter. It is the only tool that reaches nonparty witnesses and lets you follow up on the spot.
Any party may take the deposition of a party or witness by oral examination on reasonable notice; a nonparty is compelled to attend by subpoena.16 The testimony is transcribed and may be used at hearings and trial — to impeach a witness who changes their story, or as substantive evidence in defined circumstances.28
Deposing an organization
To depose a company, you may name the organization and describe the topics; the company must then designate one or more people to testify about those topics on its behalf.15 Describe the matters for examination with reasonable particularity — vague topics invite a motion for protective order.
Take depositions after you have the documents and interrogatory answers. Walking in with the paper trail lets you confront a witness with their own records — far more effective than asking blind.
Stage 3 · Request
Reaching outsiders: the four kinds of subpoena
Banks, employers, doctors, and other nonparties hold records and testimony you may need. A subpoena is how you reach them — and it comes in several forms, each for a different job.
Deposition subpoena (testimony)
Commands a nonparty to appear and give sworn testimony at a deposition. Issued under Rule 1.410 and served with a reasonable time to comply.18
Subpoena duces tecum (documents at a deposition)
A subpoena that also commands the witness to bring specified documents to the deposition — testimony and records in one step.
Documents only, no deposition (Rule 1.351)
Get documents from a nonparty without a deposition: first serve the other parties a notice of intent and the proposed subpoena, wait the required time for objections, then the subpoena issues. The efficient way to get bank or medical records.17
Trial or hearing subpoena
Commands a witness to appear and testify at trial or an evidentiary hearing — issued as the date approaches, not during the discovery phase.
Whatever the type, a subpoena must allow a reasonable time to comply and must not impose an undue burden; the proportionality sensibility that governs party discovery applies to outsiders too. Bound every document subpoena by subject and date.
For a Rule 1.351 document subpoena, skipping the advance notice to the other parties is a common, fatal misstep — it denies them the chance to object and can get your subpoena quashed and the records suppressed. Follow the notice-and-wait sequence exactly.
Stage 4 · Respond
Answering — and objecting — on time
When discovery is served on you, the clock starts. Most written discovery carries a 30-day response window, extended by five days when you were served by mail or e-mail.
For each interrogatory, request for production, or request for admission, you must answer fully or state a specific objection with the grounds. Answers to interrogatories are signed under oath; objections are signed by the party or attorney. You generally serve, not file, your responses.
Valid objections, briefly stated
Common, legitimate objections include that a request seeks privileged matter, is not proportional to the needs of the case, is vague or overbroad as to time or subject, or seeks information equally available to the requesting party. State the objection, then — where appropriate — answer to the extent the request is proper.
Reflexive objections — “vague, overbroad, burdensome” with no explanation — are routinely overruled and can draw sanctions. Tie each objection to this request and explain why; if part of a request is proper, answer that part.
Stage 4 · Respond
Withholding for privilege? Log it.
You may withhold privileged or work-product material — but only if you tell the other side what you are withholding, in enough detail for them to assess the claim.
When a party withholds otherwise discoverable information by claiming privilege or work-product protection, it must expressly make the claim and describe the nature of the withheld documents in a way that, without revealing the protected content, lets other parties assess the claim.25 That description is the privilege log.
What a log entry needs
For each withheld item, identify the date, the type of document, the author and recipients, and the basis for the claim (attorney–client privilege or work product) — enough to show the protection applies, nothing more.
Build the log while you review documents, not after. A prompt, specific log heads off a motion to compel; a missing or vague log can itself be treated as a waiver of the privilege.
Stage 4 · Template
Sample: Privilege Log
One row per withheld document. Give enough detail to justify the claim — never the privileged content itself.
The following documents are withheld from production on the basis stated:
Stage 5 · Compel
When they stonewall: confer, then compel
If the other side ignores discovery or hides behind boilerplate, the rules give you a remedy — but you must try to resolve it first.
Before moving to compel, you must confer in good faith with the other party to try to resolve the dispute, and certify that you did.20 If conferral fails, you may move for an order compelling answers or production.19 If the court grants your motion, it must generally award your reasonable expenses, including any attorney’s fees, unless the opposition was substantially justified.19
When the court orders compliance and it is ignored
If a party violates a discovery order, the court may impose escalating sanctions — from deeming facts established, to striking pleadings, to dismissing the case or entering a default.21 The most severe sanctions require a finding of willful or deliberate disregard,22 and courts weigh the six Kozel factors before dismissing for an attorney’s conduct.23
Failing to admit something you should have admitted, then losing the point, can cost you the other side’s expenses of proving it.40 Discovery obligations are mutual — respond carefully to what is served on you.
Stage 5 · Template
Sample: Motion to Compel
Note the certificate of conferral — without a good-faith effort to resolve the dispute first, the motion can be denied.
Introduction. NAME moves under Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.380 to compel DEFENDANT to respond to [Interrogatories / Request for Production] served on [date], and states:
Background. Responses were due [date]. To date, DEFENDANT has [served no response / served only boilerplate objections to Nos. __].
Argument. The requested information is relevant and proportional, and the objections lack the required specificity. [Explain briefly per request.]
Conclusion. Movant requests an order compelling complete responses within 10 days and awarding reasonable expenses under Rule 1.380(a).
Stage 6 · Use
Turning discovery into a win
Discovery is only as valuable as what you do with it. The answers, admissions, and documents you gather become the evidence that resolves the case.
Summary judgment
Admissions, authenticated documents, and deposition testimony are the raw material of a summary-judgment motion or response. Under Florida’s current standard, the record you build in discovery is what shows whether a genuine dispute of material fact exists.39
Impeachment and trial
A deposition transcript lets you confront a witness who changes their story at trial; an admission conclusively establishes its fact; produced documents come in as exhibits once authenticated — often by the very admissions you obtained.
For every element you must prove, ask now: which discovery response, admission, or exhibit proves it? If the answer is “none yet,” you know exactly what discovery to serve while there is still time.
Discovery must be completed within the deadlines in the case management order, and the 2025 rules disfavor extensions. Serve written discovery early enough that the 30-day response window closes before the cutoff.
Before You Serve
A quick discovery checklist
- I tied each request to a claim or defense I must prove.
- Every request is relevant and bounded by subject and time period (proportional).
- I served my mandatory initial disclosures and will supplement them.
- My interrogatories (with subparts) stay within the 30-question limit.
- I specified the form for any electronically stored information.
- I calendared every 30-day response deadline — mine and theirs.
- I am logging anything I withhold for privilege or work product.
- Before any motion to compel, I conferred in good faith and documented it.
Where to find Florida law — for free
Rules and procedures change, and every circuit and judge has local requirements and discovery limits. Before serving or moving, confirm the current rule, your circuit’s administrative orders, and the judge’s procedures. For more OLSI guides, visit www.openlawservices.org.
Sources & Authorities
Endnotes
Every legal proposition in this guide is grounded in the authorities below, cited in Bluebook form and verified against official Florida sources as of June 2026.
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.280(c) (2025) (scope: relevant, nonprivileged, and proportional matter). ↩
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.280(c)(1) (2025) (proportionality factors). ↩
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.280(a) (2025) (required initial disclosures); In re Amendments to Florida Rules of Civil Procedure, 386 So. 3d 497 (Fla. 2024), eff. Jan. 1, 2025. ↩
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.280(a)(3) (2025) (timing and duty to supplement disclosures). ↩
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.280(d) (2025) (trial-preparation materials; opinion work product). ↩
- Hickman v. Taylor, 329 U.S. 495, 510–14 (1947) (work-product doctrine). ↩
- § 90.502, Fla. Stat. (2025) (lawyer-client privilege). ↩
- Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Co. v. Deason, 632 So. 2d 1377, 1383 (Fla. 1994) (corporate attorney-client privilege factors). ↩
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.340(a) (2026) (interrogatories to parties; limit of 30 including subparts). ↩
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.340(c) (2026) (option to produce business records). ↩
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.350(a) (2026) (production of documents and things, including ESI). ↩
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.350(b) (2026) (form of production of electronically stored information). ↩
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.370(a) (2026) (requests for admission; matter admitted absent timely response). ↩
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.370(b) (2026) (effect of admission; conclusively established). ↩
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.310(b)(6) (2026) (deposition of an organization through designated representatives). ↩
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.310(a) (2026) (depositions upon oral examination; nonparty by subpoena). ↩
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.351 (2026) (production of documents from nonparties without deposition; notice procedure). ↩
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.410 (2026) (subpoenas; production and deposition of nonparties). ↩
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.380(a) (2026) (motion to compel; award of expenses). ↩
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.380(a)(2) (2026) (good-faith conferral required before motion to compel). ↩
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.380(b) (2026) (sanctions for failure to obey a discovery order). ↩
Sources & Authorities (continued)
Endnotes
- Mercer v. Raine, 443 So. 2d 944, 946 (Fla. 1983) (severe sanctions require willfulness). ↩
- Kozel v. Ostendorf, 629 So. 2d 817, 818 (Fla. 1993) (six factors before dismissal). ↩
- Ham v. Dunmire, 891 So. 2d 492, 500 (Fla. 2004) (applying Kozel). ↩
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.280(e) (2025) (claims of privilege; description of withheld materials — privilege log). ↩
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.390 (2026) (expert-witness discovery). ↩
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.360 (2026) (examination of persons). ↩
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.330 (2026) (use of depositions in court proceedings). ↩
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.280(f) (2025) (sequence and timing of discovery). ↩
- Fla. R. Gen. Prac. & Jud. Admin. 2.516 (2026) (service of pleadings and documents). ↩
- Binger v. King Pest Control, 401 So. 2d 1310, 1313–14 (Fla. 1981) (exclusion of undisclosed witnesses; surprise and prejudice). ↩
- Elkins v. Syken, 672 So. 2d 517, 521 (Fla. 1996) (limits on expert financial discovery). ↩
- Allstate Insurance Co. v. Boecher, 733 So. 2d 993, 997 (Fla. 1999) (discovery of expert’s relationship with a party). ↩
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.280(g) (2025) (protective orders). ↩
- § 90.5021, Fla. Stat. (2025) (lawyer-client privilege in fiduciary context). ↩
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.340(e) (2026) (interrogatories served, not filed, absent court use). ↩
- TIG Insurance Corp. of America v. Johnson, 799 So. 2d 339, 341 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001) (work-product protection). ↩
- Martin-Johnson, Inc. v. Savage, 509 So. 2d 1097, 1099–1100 (Fla. 1987) (certiorari review where discovery would let the “cat out of the bag”). ↩
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.510(c) (2026) (summary-judgment record; current standard). ↩
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.380(c) (2026) (expenses for failure to admit the truth of a matter later proved). ↩
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.200 (2025) (case management; assignment to streamlined, general, or complex tracks; case-management order setting discovery and other deadlines). ↩
- Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.200(e) (2025) (deadlines strictly enforced; parties may not unilaterally extend; continuances of trial disfavored under Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.460). ↩
A note on citations: Florida rules are periodically renumbered — the 2025 amendments moved several discovery provisions into Rule 1.280 — so where an older case cites a former subdivision, this guide pins the current numbering. Always confirm the current text of any rule, statute, or case before relying on it.